Moose
regular
Reged: 01/11/2001
Posts: 2063
Loc: West Sussex, Boat in Chicheste...
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It seems that very few boat building peeps use tinned copper wire even though it is hardly any more expensive than normal copper. So.......
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www.phantom37.co.uk
Moose
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Moose
regular
Reged: 01/11/2001
Posts: 2063
Loc: West Sussex, Boat in Chicheste...
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Should have said that if you answered yes then please tell us what boat you have
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www.phantom37.co.uk
Moose
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Ships_Cat
regular
Reged: 07/09/2004
Posts: 4180
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Did the "Yes" bit, but in fact DC is mostly tinned (but not the patch pieces between the termination strips on the DC board, and also the large high current cables eg ex battery to DC board, alternators and inverter) and AC is not tinned.
As generally found all supplied cables with radios, pumps, etc is not tinned and is same on our boat. Personally don't think the tinning is a big deal unless one is into wet old boats with manky wiring.
Boat is a professionally built custom sailboat built for us, 9 years old. Builder was of very high reputation.
John
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www.sailroom.co.uk
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pvr
regular
Reged: 22/10/2001
Posts: 1036
Loc: Midlands
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Boat is Macwester 30 (yacht) built 1971. I rewired once in automotive quality wire 5 years ago and have since replaced all the cables which go outside the boat, mainly to lights, as the other wire turned black due to the salty environment.
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there is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
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Dave_Snelson
regular
Reged: 16/10/2001
Posts: 6048
Loc: Porthmadog / Jawhara Smir / Po...
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FWIW its a Windy 8800 - 1986. There are some wires that were put in by a previous owner and they were steel. Guess how long they lasted. I stripped them all out as they had turned to dust inside.
Personally, I think they should be all SS and should all applicable metal components on a boat. (SS wire is available)
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Morocco and France Apartments
And while you sit and whistle Dixie with your money and your powers,
I can hear the flowers a-growin' in the rubble of the towers...
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Englander
regular
Reged: 07/09/2001
Posts: 14874
Loc: Barcelona/Bollyolics
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Mine are tinned, the terminal ends last much longer, without corrosion. It is the right way to do it.
One of wooden build. (boat type)
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burgundyben
regular
Reged: 28/11/2002
Posts: 1896
Loc: Hamble
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Fairey huntsman, rewired it myself, bought all the stuff from On Board Power at Hamble point.
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Raedwald
regular
Reged: 09/09/2005
Posts: 5331
Loc: al pub is in Dean St, but live...
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Quote:
Personally, I think they should be all SS
Ah, for a perfect world.
Sadly, SS is ten times or more resistive than copper - so to get a length of cable with the same current carrying characterics you would need to increase the CSA dramatically.
The only common ductile metal with better conductivity than copper is silver ..... now fancy that - a boat with silver wiring! (mind you, the corrosion would be something of a problem)
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If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion - Hayek
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halcyon
regular
Reged: 20/04/2002
Posts: 2709
Loc: Cornwall
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It makes little general differance. If based on panels we have had back for refirb, they were built with untinned tri-rated cable, over an age range of 10 -20 years.
We have some with bright copper cable after 20 years, and others with black cable after ten, we have them with some bright and some black, but non were it's required cable replacement. It would appear that the black cables are the ones that are on all the time, the one that are used intermitently are usually bright copper. Sea water running on panels will give rapid corrosion, and tinning does seem to have little effect.
What I have noted is that after 15 / 20 years female spade connectors are getting very brittle, and the tang that raps round the blade is breaking off. Were we have soldered cables to switches and PCB's, we have had no problem.
The above is based on a sample of around 200 switch panels out of around 7,000, covering 20 foot - 50 foot boats, so is a random snap shot.
Me? I always us tinned copper for signal cables, and a good qaulity tri-rated cable for power us, though if find a tinned option I would use it, as you will not be any worse off, and it looks good for the customer.
Brian
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Kddpowercentre designers and purveyors of fine charging systems for 30 years.
Powercentre spares and help line
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